Alongside announcing its second-generation 21:9 TV, Philips has also unveiled its latest range of 9000 TVs.
Alongside being 3D ready (Philips is adopting the external transmitter/glasses bundle approach for these screens) it boasts the new top-of-the-range Perfect Pixel HD processing engine, 400Hz technology, 1,792 LEDs in 224 segments for local dimming, ISF calibration and a claimed 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 0.5ms response time.
Danny Tack of Philips showed TechRadar a demo of the 9000 series TVs before IFA and compared the new flagship TV against rival models from Samsung, Sharp, LG and Sony (with the latter screen, an 803 model, only arriving at the factory the day before).
Interestingly, the demos were conducted with the screens' vivid/dynamic modes and frame rate enhancement tech activated. This is because vivid mode, according to Philips' research, is the one consumers prefer.
In a blind test alongside the brand's Natural and Movie modes, Vivid scored highest by some degree. Alarmingly for AV purists everywhere, Movie mode was last.
Halo free
The TVs include something called 'halo-free' Perfect Natural Motion technology. With all the screens running at their highest frame rate modes, he showed how haloing (which occurs when a fast-moving object crosses in front of a detailed background and the processing engine struggles to accurately create the detail in the artificial additional frames) blights all brands.
The 9000 was the least affected by artifacting, but it was still noticeable – halo-free doesn't quite live up to its name. Switch off Perfect Natural Motion, though, and the artifacting disappears. But then you get judder. The choice is yours.
With pricing to be announced, the 3D-ready Philips 9000 series of TVs will be out before the year is out.
